this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.

Every month, like millions of Americans, Colbert juggled her costs. Pay rent or swim team fees for one of her three kids. Rent or school supplies. Rent or groceries. Colbert, a social worker who helps people stay financially afloat, would often arrive home to notices giving her 30 days to pay rent and a late fee or face eviction.

“Every month you just gotta budget and then you still fall short,” she said, adding what became a monthly refrain: “Well, this month at least we have $13 left.”

Millions of Americans, especially people of color, are facing those same, painful decisions as a record number struggle with unaffordable rent increases, a crisis fueled by rising prices from inflation, a shortage of affordable housing and the end of pandemic relief.

The latest data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, released in January, found that a record high 22.4 million renter households — or half of renters nationwide — were spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022. The number of affordable units — with rents under $600 — also dropped to 7.2 million that year, 2.1 million fewer than a decade earlier.

In Congress, lawmakers are working on a bill that would expand a federal program that awards tax credits to housing developers who agree to set aside units for low-income tenants. Supporters say that could lead to the construction of 200,000 more affordable homes. Some lawmakers are also calling for more rental assistance, including a significant increase in funding for housing vouchers.

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Capitalism is forgetting that the number one rule of being a parasite is that you don’t kill the host.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The rule is "don't kill the host before you've had a chance to reproduce." Capitalism is good at finding new hosts.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I meant host in the sense of the planet and humanity. So their only hope will be mars :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Don’t worry they’re putting significant effort into that front, we’ll have a Mars colony before 2050, just about the time that the equatorial regions are getting roughed up from climate change

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

AI advancements as well as renewable energy should be a utopian paradise for all earthlings.

Instead its a tool to allow culling of the masses thru famine plague and war.

IMO, eventually there will be a tipping point.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Xenomorphs be like: wut

[–] [email protected] 82 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Lawmakers are scrambling to help

Are they though?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago

Yeah. Landlords need help.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

Scrambling to make it look like you weren't just faffing off when you were supposed to be working? Like when your boss comes in and you've got a video game up on your screen? Or your wife comes home from out of town, and you're running around picking up laundry and pizza boxes? That sort of scrambling?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Definitely not

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

If we just shovel more money at the already rich land developers and land lord corporations we can get another crumb!

[–] [email protected] 58 points 9 months ago (2 children)

US Lawmakers aren't scrambling to do anything but take bribes and engage in insider trading.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago

I just saw that "the economy is booming" and I was like "yeah, of course it is, every business in the US has increased their prices by at least 30%", people are still struggling to live though!

[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.

In Denver, Colbert’s bathroom roof partly caved in from a leak last year, and the landlord delayed a fix even as rent went up $200 a month.

There's a name for landlords like that: slum lords.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Just tax the parasites (sorry, i mean landlords) at an appropriate rate and give the money directly back to the renters. If they raise rents raise the taxes. Make it automatic. For the people.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That sounds like rent control with extra steps

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

We work with the tools we have...

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Meanwhile companies are raking in record profits, and the rich get richer. This won't stop until the workers seize the means of production.

[–] pan_troglodytes 24 points 9 months ago

the means of production was offshored decades ago

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago

In Congress, lawmakers are working on a bill that would expand a federal program that awards tax credits to housing developers...

Stop paying them for creating the problem. Start putting them in fucking prison for hoarding a necessary resource and gouging people during a crisis.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My and utilities finally caught up to me and I lost my home about 2 weeks ago...

The utility company here was responsible for burning down the entire town next to us. They passed the lawsuit payments onto the customers. My bill went from $50 a month, give or take $5, to $200 to $300 a month.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm guessing PG&E?

And fuck these utility companies. Private-public partnership hasn't worked out. It's time to nationalize the grid.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

I don't think they are

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Lawmakers are scrambling to fuck them even harder" is the realistic headline

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I was looking for the right words, but you nailed it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (4 children)

No man, credits to bulwark the insane rents people are charging will only cement the practice. Why does it take 3x your income to qualify to rent a place? Why haven't corporations and foreign investors been moved out of the single family home industry? Why hasn't a cap been put on Air Bnb and other short term rentals? How about changing the regulations to allow zoning changes which can allow more homes on existing lots?

The government, as usual, simply doesn't understand the problem! So frustrating.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I think they absolutely understand the problem. It's just that 60% of Congress are actively working against the American people on behalf of donors.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Well the answer to the 3x question is that a long time ago, in the dark ages, economists theorized that affordable housing is 30% of your gross income. Those dark ages were 1969.

Wages have lagged 137 percentage points behind core inflation since 1974. So the metric was outdated decades ago.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Can we stop giving these assholes tax breaks or subsidizing these shitty companies with tax money so they can prop up shareholders and get rich?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

Hah, I'm looking forward to not being able to afford my rent when renewal comes up in a year.

I'll be making $110k, splitting the place with my brother, but who knows how much goes to my ex

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

As someone who owns a house cause I'm very blessed to have had the means 8 years ago(0% VA home loan). I hope the housing market crashes hard.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Doubt. But while they're at it how about some limits on how much a property assessment can increase each year? My house has gone up 10 to 15% for the last 3 years, which causes property taxes to go up, which causes my mortgage to go up. I'm paying $200 per month more than I was in 2020.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Meanwhile, my grandma Rents a single room micro apartment at around 75 dollars a month where I live...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

The poor need to manage their trust funds better apparently.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Housing Crisis 2, electric Boogaloo

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Housing crisis, car payment crisis, credit debt crisis, Healthcare crisis... wait, sorry, forget any of that. Joe says the economy is great. Just look at the stock market.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You need to build more places for people to live!

[–] freedumb 3 points 9 months ago

But that would bring down the value of the current homes that the lawmakers own! Can't have that happen....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Cap how much rent can increase to the CPI % per year not including increases in property tax or strata fees and utilities if they are included in the rent.

And if you have a mortgage on something you're renting out that's a risky decision, if interest rates go up and you can't afford the mortgage without raising the rent maybe you shouldn't have taken out a mortgage for something as a way to make profit. Interest rates should not factor into the cap on rental price increase.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I own a place that I rent out. I am having a hard time figuring out how people are charging $3,000 plus a month. I don’t charge anywhere near that. The only time I raise my rent is when the city increases the cost of their taxes/fees, or if insurance for some reason goes up. Is it actually that expensive for property taxes and other things there or is just greed?

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